Lotus completes successful first E22 shakedown

The Lotus F1 Team’s new 2014 car made its on-track debut at the Jerez circuit on Friday as part of a promotional filming day.

The Enstone-based outfit opted to skip the opening pre-season test at the Spanish track, instead choosing to spend more time developing the new E22 before it’s revealed to the public at the second test in Bahrain.

Despite a slow start on Friday, the team managed to complete the full permitted distance of 100 kilometres for a filming day on Saturday with new signing Pastor Maldonado at the wheel.

The new Renault V6 Turbo power-unit developed a number of reliability issues at the first test, but some improvements were made ahead of the Lotus filming day to help address the problems. The smooth running at Jerez last week will certainly be encouraging for the Renault-powered teams.

“Both the chassis and the new Renault power unit ran without any major problems,” the team said in a statement. “Pastor settled in very quickly and is already fitting into the team nicely.

“The car went together well and the design and build quality is another step up on the successful E21 of 2013, we are looking forward to a full testing program in Bahrain next week where we will start to see the potential of the new package.”

The second winter test will take place in Bahrain between the 19th and the 22nd February.

Image courtesy of Lotus F1 Team

Jack Leslie

Jack Leslie is a freelance motorsport and Formula 1 journalist. He has been part of the Richland F1 team since the very start and made his F1 paddock debut for the website at the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix. Jack also writes for Car Throttle, RumbleStripNews, Formula1Blog, PureF1 and F1 Plus, as well as running a popular blog.